Rail fares to rise in January 2016

Rail fares are going up in January 2016, by an average of 1.1%, according to the Rail Delivery Group. This rise covers all national rail fares.

While it is the smallest annual increase for a number of years, it is still an increase on a service that many people don't think is good enough. There'll probably be sneaky rises elsewhere too - keep an eye out for how much parking and whatnot is.

Paul Plummer, chief executive of the Rail Delivery Group said: "On average 97p in every pound from fares is spent on trains, staff and other running costs. With passenger numbers doubling in the last 20 years, money from fares now almost covers the railway's day-to-day operating costs."

"This allows government to focus its funding on building a bigger, better network when the railway is becoming increasingly important at driving economic growth, underpinning jobs, and connecting friends and families."

"As an industry, we are working closer together to deliver better stations, more trains and improved services, and to get more out of every pound we spend."

We've heard that before. Hopefully, this time, we might actually see some of those improvements without having to look too hard. Of course, over the last five years, fares have gone up by around 25%, and in that time, the whole train services don't feel 25% better.

One of the things that we'd like to see, is a system which allows customers to easily get access to the cheapest fares for travel. Too often, more expensive tickets are sold when a cheaper one was available. We need a more flexible ticketing service.

Rail Minister Claire Perry said: "Our plan for passengers is improving journeys for everyone. It's transforming the tickets people buy, how much they pay for them, the trains they sit on, how quickly they arrive and the stations they arrive in."

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Raggedy

Perhaps Rail Minister Claire Perry meant to say:
”Our plan for passengers (which won't be implemented anytime soon) is improving journeys for everyone. It’s transforming the tickets people buy (more options lead to more confusion), how much they pay for them (increasing every year) , the trains they sit (sorry, stand) on, how quickly they arrive (so we must have more Hi Speed trains) and the stations they arrive in.”
Not the stations you depart from then? After all, who cares how long you have to wait for your train to arrive if you have a sprawling Mall type environment surrounding you in which to spend your cash on overpriced goods?